Doheny visitor center sports new look after 7-year renovation

April 30, 2014

Updated 2:52 p.m.

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“Montie Lion” is on exhibit at the Doheny State Beach Visitor Center, which recently reopened after a seven-year renovation project. STEVE BEHMERWOHLD, COURTESY OF DOHENY STATE BEACH INTERPRETIVE ASSOCIATION

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The tide pool exhibit at the Doheny State Beach Visitor Center is open three days a week. STEVE BEHMERWOHLD , COURTESY OF DOHENY STATE BEACH INTERPRETIVE ASSOCIATION

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Jim Serpa, in Hawaiian shirt, former president of the Doheny State Beach Interpretive Association, cuts the ribbon to the beach's remodeled visitor center April 11. COURTESY OF JIM SERPA

“Montie Lion” is on exhibit at the Doheny State Beach Visitor Center, which recently reopened after a seven-year renovation project.STEVE BEHMERWOHLD, COURTESY OF DOHENY STATE BEACH INTERPRETIVE ASSOCIATION

Interested in volunteering?

Contact Vicki Wicker at vwiker@parks.ca.gov. Docents are asked to work at least one six-hour shift per month.

Seven is the magic number for the Doheny State Beach Visitor Center. It closed in 2007. But seven years and $700,000 worth of work later, the center is again open to the public.

The small building at 23500 Dana Point Harbor Drive closed after mold was discovered in some corners. The center officially reopened April 12 with hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. Operators hope to have it open daily by summer.

The mold was initially thought to be a result of the center’s aquariums, but the culprit turned out to be the outdoor sprinkler system, said Ed Neeley, president of the Doheny State Beach Interpretive Association, a nonprofit that helps maintain the beach and its facilities.

Neeley said the closure gave the group an opportunity to renovate the building, which it had been trying to do for years. The association first began exploring renovation in 1991, said Jim Serpa, who was the group’s president at the time.

In the early 2000s, the state’s financial troubles caused it to freeze many of its grants, including money that had been set aside for a visitor center remodeling.

This time around, the association received about $100,000 from the state parks system, but most of the project’s funding came from donations from individuals and organizations, including $200,000 from the Interpretive Association.

Planning the renovation and raising the money was a slow process, but worth it, Neeley said. “They wanted to do it right, so they took their time,” he said.

NEW ‘GROTTO,’ SCREENS

The result is a sleeker version of what officials call the largest public aquarium in the state parks system.

The biggest change to the interior is a new alcove, called a “grotto,” to house the five-tank aquarium. It was previously drywall with paintings.

“The shape is basically the same, but the decoration is what is radically different,” said Serpa, who was inspired by a display at the Seattle Aquarium.

Another new feature is a flatscreen TV system. Multiple screens in the grotto feature the names and pictures of various types of marine life. A TV over the tide pool is connected to a camera that can be dropped into the pool to give visitors an underwater view of its ecosystem.

The center also has its previous displays of birds, mammals and sea life, many of which were found locally, Serpa said. The exhibits, which include ospreys, baby blue sharks and the inside of a whale’s mouth, represent more than 30 years of collecting, he said.

“It’s a representation of our local environment,” Neeley said.

MORE WORK AHEAD

Despite all the updates, the center is still a work in progress, Neeley said. Operators hope to get more marine life in the tide pool soon.

They also want to find a way to provide visitors with educational information even if they aren’t talking to a docent. One possibility is to install QR codes that visitors can scan with their smartphones to receive information about exhibits. The idea is still in development.

Another goal is to revive the center’s relationship with schools. Nearly 80,000 people visited the center each year before it closed, many of them students on field trips, according to the association. Neeley said economic pressures can limit out-of-school activities; he wants to work with school district officials to subsidize some costs and get students back in the center.

But there are challenges to meeting some of the goals. Neeley said there currently are 14 volunteer docents working at the center. To run seven days a week, it needs 20 to 30 more, he said.

Beyond that, the association is working to spread word that the center is back in business. Since the reopening, many visitors have said they had no idea the center existed, Serpa said.

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